Every year at the Garden Museum Spring Plant Fair, we gather expert plant growers and specialist nurseries from around the country to sell some of the best garden plants you’ll find in London.
From shade specialists to plants for pollinators, meet the growers and pick their brains on what will flourish in your garden, balcony or allotment.
More stalls, talks and workshops to be announced soon!
Programme
Unlocking the Power of Youth-led Nature Recovery
10am-10.45am: book tickets
What this next decade of nature recovery presents, aside from an exhilarating explosion of life, is the largest nature engagement opportunity this country has ever seen. Across the UK, young people are refusing to accept a future where large-scale nature-loss remains unchecked. Now is our opportunity to learn from, be inspired by, and, most importantly, include young people in the drive towards a regenerative future. This session will talk you through the benefits of teaming up with young people for undertaking nature recovery work, how you can do it on sites you own or manage, and upcoming future opportunities. Facilitated by Youngwilders – a youth-led non-profit accelerating UK nature recovery and involving young people in the process and movement.
A World of Sweet Peas
11am-11.30am: book tickets
Join renowned UK Sweet Pea breeder and grower Phil Johnson, and Swedish Sweet Pea authority Cecilia Wingård, who have combined their abundant bouquet of knowledge, to create a new 240-page floral bible, A World of Sweet Peas, which is bursting with fascinating information on why this annual scent sensation, has become so beloved and cultivated around the globe.
Becoming Kin
11.45am-12.30pm: book tickets
Join Sui Searle gardener and the creator of @decolonisethegarden, and Shama Khanna a London-based artist, educator and garden designer who grows, as they discuss how gardening might help to connect us to a sense of place, to ourselves, to each other and to our more-than-human kin.
Fruity Walks
12.15pm-1pm and 2.30pm-3.15pm: book tickets
Urban fruit tree forager Divya Hariramani, will be taking small groups on a journey around Lambeth to showcase the urban fruit trees you might have missed and the stories behind how they arrived and the people who planted them.
Power in the Land
1pm-1.45pm: book tickets
Food grower and writer Claire Ratinon talks – and answers questions – about organising around workers’ rights as a member of Solidarity Across Land Trades (SALT) which is a grassroots trade union fighting for better standards of pay, working conditions and cultures for those in land-related trades. Whether you are a volunteer, gardener, grower or landscape architect, this is an informal space for anyone involved in gardening to find out more.
Setting Up a Micro Nursery
2pm-2.45pm: book tickets
Hannah Fox worked at the esteemed Marchants Hardy Plants for 10 years, primarily as a propagator /gardener but ended up running the business. Hannah has now set up her own micro-nursery, Bright Green Fox, from her own garden, using every bit of space she has available. During this talk, Hannah will share her tips for making the most of a limited space, being choosy with plants, getting the right kit and keeping track of it all, with a few propagation techniques thrown in along the way.
Public Planting and How to do it Better
3pm-3.45pm: book tickets
After setting up his own nursery Zophian Plants four years ago and frustrated by the often limited plant palette for drought free planting, Toby Shuall has been researching, through trial-and-error, plant species that provide food and habitat for wildlife, are drought tolerant, hardy and look great. His focus is on exploring different low intervention ways – working with sand and aggregates – to create low maintenance, high impact plantings. This is an essential talk for anyone interested in greening cities, low intervention gardening for wildlife or a south-facing garden they don’t know how to plant.
Stalls include
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Great Dixter Nursery
Great Dixter Nursery
We are delighted to welcome Great Dixter Nursery to this year's Spring Plant Fair! The Nursery team will be bringing a selection of garden plants grown at Great Dixter's on-site nursery, a rare opportunity to buy these plants in London.
The Nursery was started by Christopher Lloyd in 1954, specialising in plants he deemed garden-worthy. We remain a small, personal and professional nursery. -
Beth Chatto's Plants & Gardens
Beth Chatto's Plants & Gardens
Beth Chatto’s has been propagating plants since the 1960’s, from our garden and nursery in Essex. Now over 2,000 varieties of plants are available, spanning sunny to shady locations and dry to damp conditions, mainly herbaceous perennials, but with a selection of bulbs and shrubs.
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Vegelicious of Hadleigh & Benton Irises
Vegelicious of Hadleigh & Benton Irises
Herbaceous and Tender Perennials, Benton Irises and Cedric Morris Plants all grown in our Nursery in rural Suffolk.
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Moore & Moore
Moore & Moore
Specialising in choice, unusual, and rare plants for shady places, they also have an interesting and select collection of plants which will attract pollinators to your garden.
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Zophian
Zophian
Zophian Plants is a new nursery specialising in drought tolerant adaptable perennials, building up collection of low maintenance long flowering plants and experimenting with growing in sand based mediums and peat free compost
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Leahurst Nursery
Leahurst Nursery
Leahurst Nurseries is a 70-year-old local plant nursery, based in Barnet. We specialise in perennials, ground ferns and grasses, growing many plants from seeds and cuttings. For the last 25 years we have traded at Columbia Rd Flower Market.
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Bright Green Fox
Bright Green Fox
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Cally Gardens
Cally Gardens
Cally Gardens is a working nursery, specialising in unusual perennials.
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Edimentals
Edimentals
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Glendon Nursery
Glendon Nursery
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Hardy's Plants
Hardy's Plants
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Harts of Lee
Harts of Lee
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Garden & Wood
Garden & Wood
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Kew Plantsman
Kew Plantsman
Professional plantsman Matthew Spratt will be selling rare and unusual perennials, shrubs, grasses, bamboo, species fuchsia and potted herbs.
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Niwaki
Niwaki
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Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses
Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses
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Friends of Arnold Circus
Friends of Arnold Circus
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Plant Heritage
Plant Heritage
